Sunday, March 18, 2007

Green Hats Win

Hope you had a good St. Patrick's Day! It's been a couple years since we had a St. Patrick's day game at Hohokam Stadium and they always seem to be very festive. The teams wear green ballcaps, many of the fans are decked out in green, and various costumes. Mark the beer guy gets even taller with a giant green top hat. Most of you probably saw or heard the game on WGN TV or Radio, or were one of the 12,764 that jammed into the stadium on a very warm day so I'll bypass the game recap.

St. Patrick's Day seems to have morphed into a beer-soaked carnival. In addition to the scheduled pre-game ceremonial pitches, an unidentified man dressed like a leprechaun clown somehow got past the field security guard and was able to walk out onto the field, and cajole Ryan Dempster into catching a pitch he threw from the mound. All's well that ends well, but it raised a some security concerns considering the guy had no press pass, and was carrying a large black bag when he walked out onto the field. A little frightening since no one including the Cubs media relations people knew who he was or what he was doing there.

After the game I was talked into heading out to one of the so-called Irish bars to celebrate our family heritage at the behest of my recently single brother. Our first effort landed us at Fibber McGees in Chandler, where before even parking we saw hundreds of people waiting in line, so we decided not to wait. Our next destination was another "Irish" bar, RT O'Sullivans on Power Road off the US 60. This day is like a license to print money for these "Irish" bars. RTO's put up a tent outside, charged $10 to get in, $7 for a Guinness, and had a mediocre non-irish music playing band. Just after entering, we realized we wouldn't be able to get inside the actual restaurant/bar because of another huge line, we asked if we could get our cover back, and were impolitely declined. We then tried to get a hand-stamp so we could at least come back after getting food somewhere else- no go there. Not that we really wanted to come back to the over-crowded tent thrown up on hot blacktop, surrounded by smelly porta-johns, but it was the principal of the matter. So I asked the "manager" why we couldn't get our money back, since there was no place to sit in the tent area, and no way to get food, and he said that's just the way it is. I said "So you are not really interested in making the customer's happy, but only in making money". His only response was a smug grin. It appears to me these establishments are more interested in making the green than celebrating it.

Cubs are headed to Tempe Diablo Stadium today to take on the LosAngeles Angels of Anaheim- I love saying that name, I only wish it could be longer. I'm going there now, so I'll talk to you later.Green guys lead Cubs chant